Will A New Guitar Hero Release Under Microsoft Now

The Guitar Hero franchise hasn’t seen a new release in years now, with the most recent game, Guitar Hero Live, coming out in late 2015, but Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Activision Blizzard has given the franchise new hope. The games have seemingly been on a hiatus since 2015, but Microsoft’s newfound ownership of the franchise could catapult Guitar Hero back into the spotlight from its long time away

Guitar Hero is perhaps most well-known for the unique shape of its peripherals, making use of guitar-shaped game controllers to simulate the experience of playing along to iconic songs. The setup is so uniquely challenging that some have even used Guitar Hero controllers to beat Halo 3 and other games. The first entry in the series came out in 2005, and all in all, there have been seven Guitar Hero games released to date despite the series taking a hiatus for several years between 2009 and 2015. In 2020, after a five-year gap without any word on the status of the Guitar Hero series, all online servers for the franchise were shut down on the PS3, leading some fans to believe the franchise might never return from its decline.

However, many were quick to point out that Microsoft’s ownership of the Xbox brand could perhaps make the revival of console-focused titles like Guitar Hero imminent. As a result, discussions have cropped up regarding why Guitar Hero should return and what players would like to see in the next potential installment. If rumors are to be believed, studio heads at both Microsoft and Activision Blizzard are thinking about the possibilities, too.

How Likely Is A Guitar Hero Revival Thanks To Microsoft

Media outlets like GameCentral have reported that current Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has expressed his interest in resurrecting franchises like Guitar Hero and Skylanders, the latter of which has been on a similar hiatus since 2018. While the GameCentral Twitter account did clarify that this was by no means a guarantee, Guitar Hero enthusiasts have latched onto the possibility across social media platforms like Twitter and Reddit.

However, just because the idea of a new Microsoft-led Guitar Hero game is evidently in the minds of executives and developers doesn’t necessarily mean that it will come to fruition. Guitar Hero requires consistent support for its music store and other online features to be maintained. Guitar Hero‘s distinctive hardware requirements also required a significant amount of upkeep to produce, and the costs were ultimately a large part of what led to the series’ decline in the past. In addition, the manufacturing of controllers has been made more difficult recently thanks to chip shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a roadblock that has hindered the production of gaming products all across the board, such as graphics cards like the GeForce RTX line.

Kotick expressed that he’s had an interest in reviving the Guitar Hero franchise for some time now but that its peripherals were a significant reason behind initial plans falling through, and it’s likely Microsoft would run into the same problems. It’s worth noting, though, that Xbox CEO Phil Spencer also namedropped the series when discussing the Activision Blizzard acquisition, according to reports from IGN. The deal isn’t set to close until mid-2023, meaning that perhaps physical shortages will be less of an issue moving forward. As it stands now, the future of the Guitar Hero series remains dicey at best, but having the support of company leadership behind it could very well mean that in the future fans may no longer have to wonder what happened to the Guitar Hero franchise.

Source: GameCentral, IGN

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Ky Shinkle
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Ky Shinkle is a Senior Gaming Features Writer for Screen Rant as well as an overall avid gamer and writer. Her prior experience is primarily that of a narrative designer for video games, although her writing has covered all formats from screenplays and novels to stage scripts. A graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design, when she isn’t writing she works on digital media projects and other types of fiction writing. Ky currently works out of Ohio and enjoys spending her free time either playing RPGs or running with her dog.

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